On the Same Poem 2011

On the Same Poem 2010 welcomes North Carolina Poet Laureate and Novelist Fred Chappell.
The award-winning poet, novelist, scholar and educator will be our featured poet
for Forsyth County Public Library’s On the Same Poem Luncheon, April 27th at
noon in the Central Library auditorium. Mr. Chappell’s featured poems, “Passage”
and “Fireflies,” are from his newest work, Shadowbox. Please bring a brown
bag lunch and join us. To reserve seats, call or email Candace Brennan at 703-3022
or brennacm@forsyth.cc or Jenny
Boneno at 703-2970 or barretjs@forsyth.cc.

On the Same Poem Luncheon 2010

The On the Same Poem Luncheon has become a staple of National Poetry Month in Forsyth
County. On the Same Poem (an extension of On the Same Page — the county’s annual
Community Read Project) is the shared experience of reading and discussing a single
poem, selected for the occasion by the featured poet. Fred Chappell will be reading
“Passage” and "Fireflies" from his newest work, Shadowbox at the beginning
of the luncheon. Over a brown bag lunch, participants will discuss the poem, facilitated
by discussion leaders at each table. The luncheon will conclude with Chappell answering
questions from the audience.

As space is limited, please contact us to make reservations. For information or
to reserve your seats, call or email Candace Brennan at 703-3022 or brennacm@forsyth.cc or Jenny Boneno at 703-2970 or barretjs@forsyth.cc.

Fred Chappel Biography

In December 1997, Governor Jim Hunt appointed Fred Chappell North Carolina's first
Poet Laureate. This is only one of many achievements for Mr. Chappell, who began
teaching in the Department of English at UNC Greensboro in 1964. In 1987 he received
the O. Max Gardner Award, the highest teaching award bestowed by the University
of North Carolina system, and in 1988 he was named the Burlington Industries Professor
of English. One of his first duties as poet laureate was to write and read a poem
in August 1998 when President Clinton visited the state to designate the New River
as an "American Heritage River," a preservation project.

Born in Canton, North Carolina and educated at Duke University, Mr. Chappell has
written 14 books of verse, two volumes of short stories, one of criticism and eight
novels.

Among the awards and honors Mr. Chappell has received over his long career are the
Sir Walter Raleigh Prize (1973), the North Carolina Award for Literature (1980),
Yale University Library's Bollingen Prize in Poetry (1985), a literature award from
the National Academy of Arts and Letters (1968), the best foreign book prize from
the Academie Française (1972), and the Aiken Taylor Award in poetry (1996). His
works of fiction include I Am One of You Forever and Brighten The Corner Where
You Are. His newest work of poetry is an innovative new collection of embedded
poems, Shadow Box.

Mr. Chappell lives in Greensboro with his wife, Susan. They have one son, Heath,
a jazz musician who lives in Chicago.

Shadow Box

Fred Chappell will read from his acclaimed new poetry collection, Shadow Box,
which includes this year’s featured poems “Passage” and “Fireflies.”
In this sharply innovative collection, Mr. Chappell layers words and images to create
a new and dramatic poetic form--the poem-within-a-poem. Like the shadow box in the
title, each piece consists of an inner world contained, framed, supported by an
outer--the two interdependent, sometimes supplementary, often contrary. The poems
delicately or wittily trace human feelings, respond somberly to the news of the
world, and rejoice in humankind's plentiful variety of attitudes and beliefs.

More Information on Fred Chappell

Poetry/Rap/Song Contest for Young People

This year we have a Poetry/Rap/Song contest for young people in middle school and
high school. Teens in 6th through 12th grades are invited to write an original poem,
rap or song for National Poetry Month. Winners will receive signed copies of Shadow
Box by Fred Chappell, lunch at On the Same Poem 2010 and a Borders gift
card. Entry forms can be found at any Library location, or from your student’s teachers
and media specialists. Entries must be submitted to the Teen Central Department
at Central Library by 5 pm Saturday, April 10th. Central Library is located at 660
W. Fifth Street in Winston-Salem. For more information, call or email Candace Brennan
at 703-3022 or brennacm@forsyth.cc
or Meg Harrison at 703-3081 or webbmm@forsyth.cc.

Contest Rules

Writings may be on any subject, in any style.

This must be an original work that has not been published.

We can accept only 3 works per person.

Please submit your work typewritten, 10 or 12 point font.

Automatic disqualification for expletives, and derogatory or sexually explicit references.

This year we are pleased to present a program featuring Dr. Catherine Carter and
Jeremy Sexton of the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Project. The original idea
of pairing North Carolina poets with young people in a mentoring collaboration came
from former NC poet laureate Fred Chappell and was funded by Marie Gilbert, poet
and past president of the North Carolina Poetry Society.

Dr. Catherine Carter was born on the eastern shore of Maryland. She lives with her
husband in Cullowhee, NC near Western Carolina University, where she teaches and
coordinates the English education program. Her first full-length collection, The
Memory of Gills (LSU, 2006) received the 2007 Roanoke-Chowan Award from
the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. Dr. Carter will read from
that collection, as well as from new poems to be published in May 2010 in a collection
tentatively titled Occult Bat Encounters.

Jeremy Sexton is a Gilbert-Chappell student poet and Winston-Salem resident. Jeremy’s
writing has received numerous awards, including the NCTE Promising Young Writers
Award and the NC Poetry Society’s student contests. Earlier this year, he wrote
a memoir that was printed in the R. J. Reynolds High School literary magazine Copy
Write. This is his second year as a Gilbert-Chappell student poet.

The North Carolina Center for the Book funds public library readings in order to
support libraries in their role as community cultural centers and to celebrate North
Carolina poets and art.

A book signing and author Q & A will follow.

Saturday, April 10th, Lewisville Library @ 2:00 pm (Lewisville Library is located
at 6490 Shallowford Road in Lewisville.) For more information, call or email Candace
Brennan at 703-3022 or brennacm@forsyth.cc.